DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i08.064

Pages: 3324-3327

Tobacco smoking is known as one of the most abused drugs for all ages. Cigarette is a factor affecting reaction time due to stimulant property of its active ingredient nicotine. Smoking can be assessed by smoking index. Smoking index [SI] is equal to multiplication of the average number of cigarettes/bidis smoked per day and duration (in years) of tobacco smoking. The objective is to measure and compare auditory reaction time in smokers with different smoking index .To evaluate smoking index as a factor associated with auditory reaction time changes. 50 apparently healthy male smokers aged 40-60yrs were considered for the study. The detail smoking history was taken and the auditory reaction time was recorded by Reaction Timer, 3 readings were considered and finally average of 3 readings was taken and student’s t test was used for analysis. p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. In our study we found that the reaction time to high pitch and low pitch sound is increased in smokers with higher smoking index compared to smokers with lower smoking index which is in contrast to many other studies done in past that showed smoking causes decrease in reaction time. We conclude our study with the observation that smoking index has an influence on central nervous system but as majority of our study subjects are elderly in age group of 51-60 years which might have produced an increase in auditory reaction time.